Whyte’s Announces Highlights From its Auction of Important Irish Art

Whyte’s auction of Important Irish Art takes place at 6pm, Monday 28 May 2018 at the RDS, Ballsbridge Dublin. The sale will offer collectors over 200 landmark examples by Ireland’s leading artists including Jack B. Yeats, Paul Henry, William Conor, Daniel O’Neill, Louis le Brocquy and many more. Presented in two sessions, the auction will also include a contemporary offering from the RDS CAP Dublin collection. Whyte’s invite bidders to view the sale at the RDS, Ballsbridge from Saturday through to Monday (day of the sale) 26-28 May 10am-6pm daily.

Leading the auction is an important oil painting from 1945 titled Morning Glory [lot 38, estimated €80,000€120,000] by Jack Butler Yeats. An expressive and theatrical example by one of Ireland’s most sought-after artists, this sizeable oil – 14 by 18ins – was exhibited widely in 1948 but has not been seen publically in over 35 years. The painting is beautifully presented in a carved Waddington frame and presented behind glass as per the artist’s instruction preserved on a label on the reverse.

A portrait of James Joyce by Louis le Brocquy [Lot 77, €15,000-€20,000] – formerly in the collection of U2’s Bono – should attract broad interest. This bespectacled gentleman is probably one of the most recogniseable faces in Irish literature and this portrait forms part of le Brocquy’s famous ‘Head Series’.

Session II in the auction includes 42 lots by recipients of The CAP Foundation Award, a program set up in 1998 by Tony and Linda Pilaro and which ran for ten years. These works were part of a larger private art collection and have been donated to the RDS to help fund the development of the RDS Visual Art Awards. While some of the artists will be very familiar to collectors, such as Guggi or Michael Cullen, others will be new to most buyers on the secondary market. Most of them were graduates of NCAD and with guides ranging from €100 to €3,000 all tastes and budgets should be catered for. Illustrated, lot 221 by David Roche guides €200-€300.